


Emotionally Compromised

by Merfilly



Category: Leverage
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 01:49:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3100583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A job goes bad, and Eliot saves the day. Who saves him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Emotionally Compromised

"If the mark isn't here, then where is he?" Sophie asked, looking at Nate in worry. That Nate's face had frozen in that rictus of shock and fear she'd come to know too well made her own skin pale. "No…"

"Eliot!" Nate snapped out over the comms.

"On it!" came a growling, harsh answer, accompanied by the hard breathing of a running man.

* * *

As soon as Nate had reported that their target was not at the proposed meeting site, Eliot's guts had twisted up. Hardison had taken point on too much of this case, and the mark had been jumpy in ways Eliot didn't like. With Parker uncovering more illegal connections than they had suspected, it didn't take much for Eliot to know, deep in his soul, that the mark was blaming Hardison and that he was desperate.

Even with all the pieces put together in his head, Eliot wasn't ready for the sight of Hardison, hands raised high and actually speechless for the moment, on the other side of the mark holding a gun pointed at head height. The mark was within the three foot radius needed for most people unfamiliar with guns to actually make the shot count… and Eliot wasn't about to let that happen.

"Hey!" he shouted, bulling forward with clear enough aggression to be the real threat of the situation. As he had hoped, the mark turned the gun away from Hardison, sighting in on Eliot instead… and the team hitter rushed him. He needed to keep that gun away from Hardison, needed to put the mark down hard for Nate to clean up later. 

There was a stinging pain, a jerk of his forward momentum, but Eliot refused to let it truly register. He didn't have time to worry about the shot, as he plowed into the mark, taking him down hard enough to bounce the man's skull off the pavement. The gun became a non-issue in the next moment, and Eliot's fist made it certain that the mark was going nowhere.

He only had needed to hit him once, so why was Hardison's hand wrapping around his wrist in the next moment Eliot was fully aware of?

"He's not going anywhere, man," Hardison said in that low, soft voice he used when he was scared for one of their team.

Eliot hadn't been the one in danger, so why did Hardison sound like that? He flicked his wrist free of that light grip and pushed off the… badly beaten mark. It made Eliot look at his hands, before the cold awareness of lost control seeped in. He'd kept hitting, long past the need, even with a bullet in his shoulder. 

Something must have crossed his face, because Hardison was suddenly there, and so was Parker, each moving to his side. Where had she been? She might have been in danger too.

"It's alright, Eliot," Hardison told him, guiding him to the van. "We've got you."

* * *

Eliot was certain he should have gone to his own place.

He gave a look toward the door, and Parker promptly sat on him. He hissed a little as the motion jostled his arm, still sore from the bullet wound in it.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, so unhelpfully because then he was thinking about it even more.

"Yes!"

"Dude got shot. Of course it hurts," Hardison said, dropping on the other end of the couch. "Need to talk?"

"No." Eliot didn't want to talk about it. He didn't want to admit the loss of control, let alone the reason he had lost it. He was a loner. He worked alone.

Only he didn't anymore, and he didn't really want to. Nate had to have someone kicking his ass back into sobriety, Sophie needed someone to trust to talk to about that, and these two…

They were his.

"I got middle tonight. Eliot's shoulder needs space," Hardison decreed, and Parker didn't argue. Eliot didn't either; he'd already lost his chance to run for it.

* * *

Parker was asleep. Hardison was cuddling; it was his default state in a bed. Eliot laid awake, staring up at the ceiling, trying to make his mind slow down.

"I can hear you thinking," Hardison said softly. Eliot glanced down to see the other man's eyes were open now.

"Dammit Hardison; can't a man brood in peace?"

"I thought we left brooding to Nate." Hardison shifted a little, and Parker rolled so her back was to them. Eliot listened a moment; she was still sleeping. Her ability to sleep left him a little envious, actually.

"I still don't want to talk about it, Alec," Eliot said, changing his tone to the softer, gentle one that made them all flinch because it meant he was on the dangerous side of his own emotions. 

"I know. You won't even let me say thank you, even though you did save my life." Instead, Hardison… Alec, when they were like this, too tangled up in each other to quit what they were… laid a hand on Eliot's until their fingers closed together. "I never meant to be this important to anyone else. I never wanted someone else who could get hurt because of me," Alec told him in a quiet voice. "To be on the other side of that has got to be hell."

"I'd do it again," Eliot said, even though that scared him too.

"Then we'll just have to be more careful, so it can't," Alec told him.

"You can't control all the factors. There's always going to be a job out there, just waiting to go wrong," Eliot reminded him.

"Yeah, and next time, it might be one of us saving you, strange as that's got to be for you to hear," Alec answered. "So… don't talk about it. Just put that little piece of us in that place you keep the things that bother you. That piece you know good and well will come for you, when you slip over an edge." He leaned up enough to kiss Eliot's cheek, then settled in on his good shoulder. "It's all we can do, man, until you need to talk."

Eliot let his own eyes close, not liking that Alec was right. But it made sense; he'd kill for them if it came to it, and they'd always be there for him. It didn't even matter what he'd done; they took him as who he was, past and all.


End file.
